Hearts and Flowers

Detail of Lisa's work on Gerry's block, originally uploaded by ivoryblushroses.

Working on Gerry's encrusted block was such a delight! Her colors, shades of mauvy pink, were right in my comfort zone and I loved her theme of "Queen of Hearts" and the lovely Victorian era images she used on her silkies for the blocks! Gerry stated that she loved fancy seams and to add jewels and hearts to the block as well as crowns.


Upon digging through my scrapbooking supplies, I was able to find a couple of crown charms as well as a few little gold toned hearts. A little alcohol ink added some color and once I figured out how to hold the crowns on without glue (a little gold embroidery thread to couch them down worked well!), I was off and running. I keep a little sketchbook of seam treatments that I like and used one of them for the large seam at the lower center of the block. I don't have lots of "jewels" as they don't suit my style, but I did add lots of pearls! The heart charms were added with little bows.


For the silkie, I framed it in a wreath of flowers. There is a large spider web rose at the upper left, lots of little filler roses of and various flower beads in shades of pink. I also made lots of little ribbon flowers using 3 shades of ruffled 1/4" ribbon I had using instructions from Candace Kling's book, "The Artful Ribbon".

This ended up being the most encrusted block I have ever done and I hope Gerry loves it as much as I do!